XXI

Economics

March
22, 1919. There is an astonishing number of
books on what is called Reconstruction in the new
publications of this spring. Reconstruction seems
to be as easy as conscription or destruction. We
have only to change our mind, and there we are, as
though nothing had happened. It is the greatest
wonder of the human brain that its own
accommodating ratiocination never affords it any
amusement. We use reason only to make convincing
disguises for our desires and appetites. Perhaps
it is fear of the wrath to come that is partly
responsible for the clamour of the economists and
sociologists in the publishers' announcements,
almost drowning there the drone of the cataract of
new novels. But it is too late now. The wrath
will come. After mischievously bungling with the
magic which imprisoned the Djinn, we may wish we
had not done it; but once he is out there is
nothing for it but to be surprised and sorry. The
lid is off; and it is useless for the clever
reconstructionists to press in upon us with their
little screw-drivers, chattering eagerly about
locks and hinges. When the crafty but ignorant
Russian generals and courtiers got from the Czar
the order for mobilizing the armies, and issued
it, they did not know it, but that was when they
released Lenin. And who on earth can now inveigle
that terrific portent safely under lid and lock
again?